Organ donation and transplantation

Currently there are over 7,000 people on the UK national transplant waiting list and, during the last financial year, over 1,300 people either died whilst on the waiting list or became too sick to receive a transplant. It is therefore vital that we continue to build on the current success and continue to make more progress.

4,212 organ transplants were carried out, thanks to the generosity of 2,313 donors

1,160 lives were saved in the UK through a heart, lung, liver or combined heart/lungs, liver/kidney or liver/pancreas transplant

3,052 patients' lives were dramatically improved by a kidney or pancreas transplant, 166 of whom received a combined kidney/pancreas transplant

A further 3,697 people had their sight restored through a cornea transplant

A record number of 749 kidney transplants from donors after circulatory death took place and accounted for one in four of all kidney transplants

1,068 living donor kidney transplants were carried out accounting for more than a third of all kidney transplants. 'Non-directed' living donor transplants (also known as altruistic donor transplants) and paired and pooled donations contributed more than 130 kidney transplants between them

Almost 1,012,000 more people pledged to help others after their death by registering their wishes on the NHS Organ Donor Register, bringing the total to 19,532,806 (March 2013).